Learning how to shoot a Man

...The Bullet had taken a size-able piece of human out of the Thief's right shin, it was 2 or three seconds before he began to scream and when he did it was a steady crescendo , reaching a plateu of which my own screams have thankfully never reached. It was disgusting and so violent there's no way it didn't cause his throat some extra pain. Most of all it was obnoxious, because i did not sympathize with the wretch. A quick tap of the boot and he slept like a baby.

This market my third knockout and second time carrying dead weight. Knockout one- enter 10th grade in  Harrison School for boys- Harrison protectorate- Cambodia, The whole day had been spent thinking about leaving the Corporate community of Harrison Pharm. but there didnt seem to be a way out. Cambodia was at the time being principally occupied by American refugees. The whole country was split up by Companies land grabbing - waving obscene amounts of nearly worthless money at the cambodian government and land owners and thusly conquering the country. Just a mad wilderness dotted with suburban neighborhoods, walled and self sufficient. There were people in the Wilderness aswell but they lived in a completely different way than Corperates. It was a mystery to me then, romantic and daring. I thought the way of life we were living would last forever, there were warnings but no one cared to change their ways. They just wanted to live. Normally. They somehow forgot they were in Cambodia. In strange communities, fake, and not very well though out. But in Harrison Protectorate you got to choose from 7 house styles and colors...These heavy thoughts can really piss you off and all it took was Austin Redding to come up and remind me he was fucking the girl I had first fallen in love with, Kid love, so nice. I broke his nose and didn't get to come back to school. He was out for 8 hours. The next knockout was an accident while Lifting Plastic beams over a fence. Turned around to fast and knocked one of the coolies right off his feet. Sorry dude.

The other time I had carried dead weight was when I was 8 and we were sure my good friend Eli had drowned. The river was moving faster than wed ever seen it, camping out in the jungle. We didn't take it as something dangerous, to us it was something fun. Eli jumped in first, then Jake, I was about to jump in when i saw Jakes face. His eyeline lead to a rock that had two little legs pressed up against it. On top of the legs were little upside-down feet and we both KNEW he was drown. Somehow we hauled him out of the water but knew nothing of resuscitation. We were too sure he was a goner. We carried him a mile back to our families camp sight. The parents erupted with questions and tears, the men scrambled to help Eli while the mothers hurled 700 words at once toward Jake and myself. Eli was fine, coughed some water and we went and ran about some more. I still count that as the first time I saw a dead body.

"I cant believe he got so far, Dyrell must have been really fuckin' up." Artcher said lifting the Thief's broken leg tenderly, we had questions to ask." Dyrells' pretty good usually, He was fuckin up."

"Good thing were here to clean up his mess. The fuckin asshole!" I said and we were both Laughing from the gut by the end of the sentence. Relieved we had recovered both the culprit and our goods, and without a scratch, it felt good to laugh.

Carrying This motherfucker through the jungle was one of the most tedious things Id had to do since our exodus, and the fall of the protectorates. There was literally no good way. The rain decided to pick up again, maybe it was a joke. When we made it back, everyone was on the porch smoking. Looking nervous before they saw us, and excited when they did.

"Way to go!" Anna shouted hopping off the porch. " oh wow you got our shit too! great" She grabbed the goods and tossed them up onto the porch again. Anna had been with us, me and Artcher, since we left Harrison. She was the daughter of a british family and hung on to the accent. Alot of accents disappear in Corporate but hers was strong. She was very much so an asset to our gang, she kept us level headed. 

"Did a number on that one then" Dyrell said helping us hoist the Thief onto the porch. " Im not much of a shot myself"

"Didn't notice" Artcher said with a laugh. If Artcher didn't know Dyrell as well as he had come too, he wouldn't dare make this kind of joke to the man. Dyrell was The biggest blackest man I had ever seen in my life. He could control a room the second he walked into it and just by guessing, Id say break bones just by looking at them. Around six and a half feet tall and 250 lbs , Dyrell was not to be fucked with. Unless of course he had a gun in his hand, in which case he was relatively harmless. Horrible shot "Horrible shot!"

That was the four of us. Our gang. There were 3 french Kids, about 19-22, they spoke english just fine but often chose to speak in french amongst themselves. We worked together, but stayed fairly separate. Now we were all here, together on the porch, with the unconscious Soldier-thief. It would be some time before he woke up. If I had hit Austin this hard, he would never have woken up.

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